Sweet soir&eacute;e: Joan Osborne, Alison Krauss, Absynth Quintet and more to pluck at Strawberry Music Festival

With festival season rapidly approaching, one of the sweetest of California's galas will come to fruition on May 24 just an eight-hour drive away at the border of the stunning Yosemite National Park.

This year's spring version of the Strawberry Music Festival boasts four days of musically enhanced fun featuring the likes of Kentucky singer-songwriter Joan Osborne, bluegrass greats Alison Krauss and Union Station, bluesy soul-rocker Ruthie Foster, Minnesota indie folk-rockers Trampled by Turtles, Humboldt's own bluegrass badasses Absynth Quintet and many others.

"I can't wait to hear Ruthie Foster sing again," Osborne said, who will conclude day two of the festival at 8:45 p.m. on May 25. "The last time that I was able to listen to her was when I was at The Warren Haynes' Christmas Jam a couple years back. She's just amazing. And I've been following (Alison Krauss) for years and have only had the chance to see her a time or two. It'll be great to see her and to reconnect with a couple of the guys in (Krauss') band that I've worked with in the past -- I worked with Dan Tyminski on the 'Pretty Little Stranger' record that I did in Nashville a number of years ago."

Touring in support of her new blues-covers album "Bring It On Home," an album that a majority of critics love, Osborne said she makes it a habit not to read reviews -- favorable or otherwise.

"I have to confess, I don't really read all of the reviews and stuff because I've found that it's great to read a good review and it makes me feel really nice but then when I get a bad review I just get depressed for days afterwards," she laughed. "So I try not to do that to myself."

On the album she makes her own renditions of classics made famous by legends like Ray Charles, Ike and Tina Turner, John Mayall, Slim Harpo, Muddy Waters, Otis Redding and many others. While she's enjoyed performing songs from the album lately, the LP wasn't exactly her idea.

"I was at the Lincoln Center doing a show with the Blind Boys of Alabama," Osborne said. "The guys from their label, Saguaro Road, were in the audience there. And I had met these guys over the years. They approached me after the show and said we would love to hear you do this stuff -- this raw, bluesy, soulful gospel music."

At first she said she wasn't sure, as she was working on new material that will make it into the hands of fans at the end of this year or beginning of next. But, Osborne eventually realized a covers record was the right thing to do at the time.

According to Osborne, her set at Strawberry will feature four or five songs from "Bring It On Home," a couple unreleased songs and, of course, fan-favorites like "One Of Us" from her breakthrough 1995 album "Relish."

While Osborne didn't write the Eric Bazilian-penned song, which is often referred to as the "what-if-God-was-one-of-us" song, the singer-songwriter said she sometimes finds people out there who assume she has more spiritual connections than your typical person on the street.

"I think because they assume I wrote a song about God that I go into some kind of trance-like spiritual state," she said. "I mean I do that just as much as anyone does, but I don't claim to be some sort of prophet in any way. It's impressive to me that a pop song can engender those kind of questions, though."

For adults, Strawberry Music Festival prices range from $65 for a one-day ticket to $200 for a four-day pass. Tickets, directions to Camp Mather, camping information, performance schedules and more can be found online at strawberrymusic.com.

"I'm really grateful and thankful that people have stuck with me for this long," Osborne concluded. "I've got fans that were with me before 'Relish' and before any kind of national renown, and I know that I'm really fortunate to be able to do this for my living for as long as I've been able to do it. And it's really just because of the fans, the ones who've been with me for a long time or the ones who are just coming to know me now. It's a real privilege and I just want to let everybody know I'm grateful and to thank them for coming to the shows and for being a part of it."